World

The main suspect in the stabbing murder of two gay sex workers in Guyana's capital of Georgetown last week died on Sunday, July 20 at Georgetown Hospital after confessing to the murders and setting himself on fire.

News Source reports 31-year-old Samuel Bristol of Nabacalis, East Coast Demerara, set himself on fire in the Regent Street area close to City Hall just before sunrise that Sunday.

Medical sources said he was burned on 80 percent of his body after dousing himself with gasoline. A male sex worker called "Thin Slice" was asked to identify the body; he told News Source that he was in a relationship with Bristol for more than five years when the man became abusive.

"He was always threatening me and came out there last night threatening me and the other girls. He even came with gasoline to throw on one of the girls who was arguing with him and he threatened a set of us and when we began to chase him, he ran out to the Regent Street area and was rescued by a security vehicle that was driving by," said Thin Slice.

Several hours later, "Thin Slice" said he found out about the murder of two other sex workers who were among their group who had also spurned Bristol's advances.

Gay Star News reported that male sex workers Jason John Samuels and Carl Sinclair were stabbed to death just after midnight on Sunday morning on Leopold Street and Lombard Street.

Bristol reportedly threw fire on "Thin Slice" before the other gay sex workers intervened and he fled. He reportedly tracked them down later that night and stabbed them to death. Samuels' body was found on Leopold Street and Sinclair managed to run a block away to Lombard Street before Bristol caught up with him and killed him.

Homosexuality is still illegal in Guyana; it is one of the few remaining South American countries to criminalize sex between men.